Benefits to users.
We argue that Harpo meaningfully contributes to improving privacy for users who have no other recourse.
The web's current business model at its core has been described as surveillance capitalism [1]}, [2]}, [3]}.
The true extent of pervasive tracking and surveillance for the sake of online targeted advertising is unknown to lay users, who cannot be reasonably expected to understand the details buried in incomprehensible privacy policies [4]}, [5]} or make the informed choices due to deceptive practices [6]}.
A vast majority of online advertising platforms do not support privacy-by-design features or attempt to circumvent privacy-enhancing blocking tools.
Thus, the practice of falsification in a privacy-enhancing obfuscation tool, such as Harpo, is ethically justified from the user's perspective [7]}.
